# data[].attributes.body
I choose ABRAHAM LINCOLN

HIS HISTORY?
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 to April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States and is regarded as one of America's greatest heroes due to his role as savior of the Union and emancipator of the slaves. His rise from humble beginnings to achieving the highest office in the land is a remarkable story. He was suddenly and tragically assassinated at a time when his country needed him to complete the great task remaining before the nation. His eloquence of democracy and insistence that the Union was worth saving embody the ideals of self-government that all nations strive to achieve. Lincoln's distinctively human and humane personality and incredible impact on the nation has endowed him with an enduring legacy.

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation, reshaping the cause of the Civil War from saving the Union to abolishing slavery. The Union Army's first year and a half of battlefield defeats made it difficult to keep up morale and support strong for a reunification of the nation. And the Union victory at Antietam on September 22, 1862, while by no means conclusive, was hopeful, giving Lincoln confidence to officially change the goals of the war.Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation stated that all individuals who were held as slaves in rebellious states "henceforward shall be free." The action was more symbolic than effective because the North didn’t control any states in rebellion and the proclamation didn’t apply to Border States, Tennessee or some Louisiana parishes.

WHAT WERE HIS REASONS FOR FAME?
On November 19, 1863, Lincoln delivered what would become his most famous speech and one of the most important speeches in American history, the Gettysburg Address. Addressing a crowd of around 15,000 people, Lincoln delivered his 272-word speech at one of the bloodiest battlefields of the Civil War, the National Cemetery of Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania.The Civil War, Lincoln said, was the ultimate test of the preservation of the Union created in 1776, and the dead at Gettysburg fought to uphold this cause. Lincoln evoked the Declaration of Independence, saying it was up to the living to ensure that the “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” and this Union was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” A common interpretation was that the President was expanding the cause of the Civil War from simply reunifying the Union to also fighting for equality and abolishing slavery.

WHAT WERE HIS ACTIONS?

The presidency of Abraham Lincoln began on March 4, 1861, when he was inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States, and ended upon his assassination and death on April 15, 1865, 42 days into his second term. Lincoln was the first member of the recently-established Republican Party elected to the presidency. He was succeeded by Vice President Andrew Johnson. Lincoln presided over the Union victory in the American Civil War, which dominated his presidency.Lincoln took office following the 1860 presidential election, in which he won a plurality of the popular vote in a four-candidate field. Almost all of Lincoln's votes came from the Northern United States, as the Republicans held little appeal to voters in the Southern United States. A former Whig, Lincoln ran on a political platform opposed to the expansion of slavery in the territories. His election served as the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the American Civil War. During the 16 weeks between Election Day and Inauguration Day, seven slave states declared their secession from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. After being sworn in as president, Lincoln refused to accept any resolution that would result in Southern secession from the Union. The Civil War began weeks into Lincoln's presidency with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, a federal installation located within the boundaries of the Confederacy.

Lincoln was called on to handle both the political and military aspects of the Civil War, facing challenges in both spheres. As commander-in-chief, he ordered the suspension of the constitutionally-protected right to habeas corpus in the state of Maryland in order to suppress Confederate sympathizers. He also became the first president to institute a military draft. As the Union faced several early defeats in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, Lincoln cycled through numerous military commanders during the war, finally settling on General Ulysses S. Grant, who had led the Union to several victories in the Western Theater. Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation freed about millions of slaves in Confederate-held territory, and established emancipation as a Union war goal. In 1865, Lincoln was instrumental in the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which made slavery unconstitutional. Lincoln also presided over the passage of important domestic legislation, including the first of the Homestead Acts, the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862, and the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. He ran for re-election in 1864 on the National Union ticket, which was supported by War Democrats in addition to Republicans. Though Lincoln feared he might lose the contest, he defeated his former subordinate, General George B. McClellan of the Democratic Party, in a landslide. Months after the election, Grant would essentially end the war by defeating the Confederate army led by General Robert E. Lee. Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, five days after the surrender of Lee, left the final challenge of reconstructing the nation to others.

WHAT WERE HIS BELIEFS?

1. Opposed the Mexican War

2. Opposed slavery in newly acquired western territories such as Kansas (did not immediately push to abolish slavery federally)

3. That transcontinental railroads should go forward, as they did with the Pacific Railway Acts

4. Support for and legislation enacting a national banking system

5. Federal Indian policy reform

6. Is responsible for Thanksgiving being on the last Thursday of November.

7. That preservation of the Union was more important than ending slavery. He initially opposed ending slavery where it existed, and once said if he could save the Union without freeing a slave, he would have done it.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM HIM?
1. Passion comes as much from the merit of our fight as it does from what is within us. What I mean by this is if we are fighting to make more money, we can expect little passion. We simply aren’t designed for selfish gain. We were designed to sacrifice, and sacrifice for the sake of others (love, not the mushy kind, but the real kind won with blood) and a sacrificial cause will bring out the best in us.

2. Realize we are divinely appointed and have been called to a difficult challenge. Lincoln was attacked, slandered and harassed by men perceived as noble, moral, upright and even Christian. He was not a man who often attended church. Lincoln, however, had a deep and centered faith, perhaps considering himself divinely appointed. He believed he was doing the will of God. Do I believe we are divinely appointed? I believe the fact we exist makes us divinely appointed. We were, after all, divinely created. It helps a little to take up the cause of the oppressed if we want to live up to that appointment. Regardless, though, what we do with our lives can be a partnership with God.

3. Understand you will face resistance. It’s nearly unbelievable that the thirteenth amendment to the constitution would face opposition, but it did. In hindsight, we can all see clearly, but in the moment, southern leaders who voted for the amendment were voting against the economic welfare of their constituents and giving power to the north. We tend to think if we choose a noble cause the world will come with us. But the world won’t. Doing good will involve a fight and, not unlike Lincoln, it may be a fight that costs your life.

4. Forgive your enemies. In doing good, you will create enemies. And yet have we really risen above the spirit of the world if we aim to seek vengeance? In two scenes in Spielberg’s film, Lincoln is a man portrayed as devout toward his cause, even willing to allow hundreds of thousands to die, but extremely quick to forgive and reconcile once a just course had been established.

MADE BY MOKSH